Ebony scales
by chloemcg
Summary: Cynder is confronted with her son coming home with cuts and bruises, can she gather her motherly instincts and deduce what had happened with her hatchling? Fluffy one-shot.


**Disclaimer: I don't own Spyro or Cynder, or any characters from the Spyro the dragon series. I only own Ivor, my fan child of Cynder and Spyro. I. OWN. NOTHING.**

 **Ebony scales.**

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Cynder was just enjoying her afternoon with a book nestled on top of her claws as she laid down on her stomach relaxedly. Her tail was coiled around her slender body and her magenta chest slowly moved in time with her soft breathing, her wings were nicely folded against her back so they wouldn't get in the way.

The full-grown shadow dragoness was waiting for her young son to come home while her mate, Spyro, had gone on a mission with ice guardian Cyril and Earth guardian Terrador. It was an important peace mission that he had volunteered to go on to ensure peace and harmony after the Dark lord Malefor had finally been extinguished from everyone's lives.

It had been as plain as paper that the heroes of Warfang had fallen for each other and the two dragons had settled down in a small meadow beside the city. They got married and they even had a young son named Ivor; Ivor was a rare white dragon and he had mixed abilities. It was apparent that he could wield the abilities of a purple dragon and a shadow dragoness, thanks to his parents.

Although the young Ivor was hatched 20 moons ago, he was physically 7 years of age.

Cynder perked her head up upon hearing the front door slam open and she called out aloud, knowing who had just entered the house "Hello, Ivor! How was school?"

Well, to be perfectly honest, it wasn't as much as school as it was training up and honing your powers with the dragon Guardians. Every little dragon was required to go there to control the powers they wield and even learn about the past history of the dragon race; Ivor was especially committed since he was the son of the great and powerful purple dragon, Spyro, whom had saved the whole world.

He was determined to try and be as good with all the elements of fire, electric, ice and earth as his father was. Even though he had obtained some of his mother's abilities too and it was these abilities that he was currently trying to master.

Yet it seemed that he was still struggling as Cynder was confronted with a downhearted small white-scaled dragon.

Ivor resembled his father quite a bit but he had white scales, unlike both of his parents. He had big light grey horns sticking on his head that looked like Spyro's and he had much smaller horns on the lower part of his face that were arranged much like Cynder's. He had yellow and red spines running down along his back and tail was shaped like a scythe and he had a burgundy underbelly. He had small yellow-framed wings with magenta coating most of the parachute part of the wing flaps.

His big purple eyes were downcast and glaring and he wore a dejected frown on his square-shaped muzzle.

The dragoness looked down at her son with the lips on her pointed snout pulled into a frown of concern "Ivor, sweetheart, what's the matter?"

The small dragon sighed and shook his head "It's nothing."

Cynder simply wrinkled a brow with knowing scepticism, her blue/green eyes glaring down at the small dragon. She knew when her son was lying to her, she disliked it when her child lied but she wasn't one to simply demand answers since she knew that anger wouldn't solve anything.

So she decided to humour him "Are you sure? You look pretty down."

Ivor nodded, hanging his head low as he sauntered off to sulk somewhere else but he froze upon hearing his mother call sharply to him "Come here."

His response was hesitant but he eventually turned around and headed back towards Cynder who sat up patiently, setting her book aside, and patted a small spot on the floor next to her with her tail. Her eyes were filled with patience but her expression was clearly no-nonsense. She wasn't fooled and she was going to try and get the truth out of him.

The little white dragon sat on the spot wanted of him and kept his head down, staring at his own downcast reflection on the floor. It seemed to have been better to look at then his own mother's face right now.

Cynder took each action into consideration as she tried to discern what was wrong with her son. She had proven to be a very observant combatant in the past and had a keen eye to detail, it was how she had managed to win all those matches when she had been in Gaul the ape king's fighting arena.

So now she used this keen eye for detail in an attempt to pinpoint what was the matter with her hatchling; Ivor appeared to have been very evasive and was trying to avoid her. He also looked to have been bruised on his head and his shoulder blades seemed to have taken a bit of a beating as well. He even tried to guard his right front paw and made an attempt at concealing it from her by letting his tail curl around his body and hiding it behind his tail as he sat.

Finally Cynder started to get a good idea what had been going on and why he was looking so glum.

"Had a hard day with training?" The words slipped from her tongue so fluidly and her words her as loose and relaxed as she was right then.

Ivor looked up with apparent shock striking his eyes, his maw was wide open and his jaw was slack. It was obvious by this reaction that the shadow dragoness had hit the nail on the head and Ivor hung his head even lower when he knew that he would have to spill the beans...

...Although he decided to have one more go at concealing the truth.

Ivor looked to his far left whilst he replied "Um, no. I did g-great at training today...!"

Cynder looked sternly at the small dragon, her brows knitting together as she glared softly at him and this was a look she used only to get information from her son when he was feeling particularly secretive and tried hiding stuff away. Ivor was always very honest and well-meaning so she was kind of shocked to see this kind of behaviour.

She watched as the little dragon beside him turned his head away and started to lose her patience with his refusal to tell her what was going on, she didn't know how Spyro would deal with this kind of thing since he was normally the one to get the truth out of him whilst she comforted him.

Her voice was starting to titter over the edge of sounding angry as she demanded gently "Don't lie to me and let me see your paw."

Ivor sighed soundlessly and started shaking.

The gig was up and he could no longer hide it all from his mother as he finally looked back to her with tears cascading down his face whilst he trembled with tension and stiff frustration. He quickly darted over to Cynder and thrown himself at her chest as he cried into her magenta underbelly, his wails muffled due to his face burrowing in her tummy.

Cynder was shocked by this but didn't hesitate to try and comfort him as she wrapped a claw comfortingly around him so she could try and ease his rampaging emotions; Ivor's little body trembled as he wept and he spent every last droplet of his tears on all the pain and hurt he had gone through earlier that same day. It took a good 10 minutes but he finally calmed down enough to speak, and he parted his face from her chest and sniffled.

"I'm...I'm so sorry, mum," he sobbed "I didn't mean for it to get that far! Honest! I just, that bully, he started saying t-things and I g-g-got so angry!"

Cynder didn't say a word but she did examine each and every apparent injury from the scuffle Ivor had clearly got himself into. His paw looked really swollen, there were obvious bite wounds, several cuts and claw marks and bruises that adorned his body and he looked to have received a nasty bump on his head from being charged at.

Any mother's heart would break in two if they saw their children with so many surface injuries and Cynder was no exception for her heart snapped into several pieces when she saw the clear extent of those horrible injuries. Her heart was overflowing with sympathy and her eyes swam with similar emotions.

She craned her long neck down and started to lick the little white dragon comfortingly "It's alright, my sweet, it's okay, I'm here now...what did they say to make my little one so angry, hmm?"

Ivor sniffled and wiped his eyes with his swollen claw, wincing upon feeling the contact it had with his snout. The small dragon looked away and didn't say anything in reply although he looked quite forlorn about it so he pulled away from his mother's chest and it had been stained with tears by now.

Cynder could tell immediately that she wouldn't like this.

Eventually Ivor replied, albeit quietly "They called you...a m-monster and t-t-terror of the s-skyes..."

The former servant of Malefor didn't say anything but hurt did gleam in her eyes of hearing that her son was being ridiculed because of her. She had never told Spyro but she was worried that this would happen, she really didn't want it to because her sweet little hatchling didn't need to learn about that side of her.

But she was also shocked that Ivor would get into trouble at training! Ever since the day he had hatched he had proven to be her sweet little kindle of love, he disliked being called this especially in front of the other dragon kids but it wasn't like Cynder was going to let go of her motherly instinct to shower him with loads of embarrassing affections.

An unsettling silence filled the home for several moments and neither mother nor son spoke a single word or even dared to break it yet the air felt colder than ice.

Finally, Cynder got to softly scolding the young dragon hatchling "Ivor. It was sweet of you to defend me but that doesn't justify you attacking another young dragon. Bullies feed on the reaction of their victims and you must learn to block them out, alright?"

Ivor didn't speak a word. He felt as though his heart was trapped in some kind of dark gooey mush that made him feel disgusted at himself, he didn't even wish to fight anyone but he wasn't going to let anyone insult his parents if he had anything to say about it.

He nodded stiffly regardless, letting loose a long exhale through his nostrils, and he slowly went to lay by her and laid one of his claws on top of hers as he patted it warmly as he snuggled up to his beloved mother.

Her black and rigid scales felt so warm against his white more delicate ones and he felt the need to close his eyes with exhaustion. Her body heat rivalled that to an open fire roasting a pile of kindling on a wintry eve and he fought back the urge to smile comfortably when her warmth seeped through his tiny battered body.

Yet Ivor just couldn't help but notice his mother seemed downhearted. She her head with shame whilst she averted her own gaze from the cute little dragon, displaying the same troubled behaviour he did mere minutes ago.

"Mama...a-are you alright?"

Cynder seemed to jump a little as her son's little voice brought her back to reality before she started to completely board her train of thought. Her eyes were almost full of hurt "I'm alright, baby, it's just that mummy's just..." She trailed off for a moment, forcing herself to finish that hard sentence "...still finding it hard when they call me that."

She stared blankly off into space, hurt reflecting in her eyes.

But she blinked when she heard a tiny voice "I don't care what they say, you're a nice dragon to me..."

Cynder's heart swelled as she looked down at the little one and a compassionate smile embraced her muzzle. Never had she loved the tiny white dragon as much as she did now and she reached down and proceeded to lick little Ivor's wounds to try and ease the pain that probably throbbed all over his little body.

Ivor smiled cheerily as he nuzzled her, a purr vibrating from his throat as he cuddled her. He winced when his mother's tongue made firm contact with his cuts and bruises but he adapted to it quick when he knew that it was an action done completely out of love, all the emptiness had been replaced with an overpowering feeling of affection and everything else that could be described as "warm" and "fuzzy".

Mother and son laid on the ground for what felt like an eternity.

That was before Cynder started to rise up to stand on all fours. She gave a long stretch of her forelimbs and let out a lengthy yawn whilst she straightened out her spinal cord until she heard and felt a satisfying pop snap from the stiff joints and muscles.

She grinned as she nudged Ivor playfully on the side and asked with a sharp glint in her warm eyes "Would you to come into the garden so I can teach you some special techniques?"

Ivor's eyes went wide and his jaw dropped to the ground with disbelief. He looked as if he had just received a hard slap to the face before being told that he had won the lottery, his legs turned to jelly and started to shake like mad at the kneecaps. He also looked like he could barely contain his excitement as he practically burst within the next three seconds.

"YES! Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, YEEEEESSSS!" The little white dragon started bouncing up and down as if he had just consumed five hundred pounds of caffeine and started to speak very fast. He spoke faster than Volteer and that was saying a lot because that electrical dragon had a severe case of mouth diarrhoea, he could barely catch his breath before going off into a massive tangent about whatever thought took a nice little flight through his head.

Within instants Ivor had sped off towards the back garden with the speed of a Ferrari going at full throttle.

Cynder chuckled at Ivor's enthusiasm with a big grin spreading across her muzzle.

She was lucky to have the life she led now, if Spyro hadn't rescued her from Malefor's dark clasp on her then she doubted that she would have even been there. But she was mostly thankful for the life that she and the heroic purple dragon had created together and she was even more happy to have had this time to bond with the little hatchling one on one.

"Mama! Come ooooon~" The sounds of little Ivor's voice brought Cynder out of her brief euphoria and she blinked several times, only just clasping reality once more as she headed out to follow the enthusiastic hatchling.

"I'm coming!" She called out.

Cynder loved her time with her family and she wouldn't have traded this life for any other. The ebony-scaled dragoness closed her eyes and thanked the heavens or, more specifically, her dearly beloved and let her heart take flight. Needless to say, she was forever thankful for everything she had now.

She was mostly happy to have had some individual time with her little son.

' _Thank you...'_

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 **A/N: Hi, guys. I'm back with a new Spyro one-shot about Cynder and her hatchling, Ivor, who was first featured in my last Spyro story "Tiny scales".**

 **Im sorry if this one-shot wasn't one of my best but I do hope some of you lot will like it. I don't do Spyro stories very often but I am planning on doing a one-shot about Spyro spending time with little Ivor. I hope you guys all leave a review and tell me what you think of this.**

 **Thanks, everyone!**

 **-Chloemcg**


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